Study on the Origins of Evil
by Cotto
Summary: Kennedy's additional training for hunting monsters also deals with religious and historical references to how mankind got so badly messed-up in the first place. Set in Season 4 era of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I want to thank Kenn, Faith, Dawn for his suggestion of this, and hope he is aided in continuing his universe this's set in.


**Study on the Origins of Evil.**

_**By James Carmody.**_

**Disclaimer:**_ I own the copyrights to *neither* Buffy/Angel nor Battlestar Galactica, nor the Old and New Testaments of the Catholic Bible, but they by and large deal with the same adversary; so this should prove interesting. I forego any financial renumeration for this work of fanfiction artwork, and will not accept a single red Cent. I also do not own any part of Harry Potter._

**Summary/Note of Gratitude to a colleague of mine:**_ Scenario runthrough for a pal of mine: Kenn, Faith, Dawn, as he's once signed his penname, dealing with his "Buffy Rewrite" he's been rightfully working on, but set in Season 4, and deals with things involving Confirmation Preparation studies, of which my memory may well be a bit faulty on, due to it having been over two decades since my own._

_**2**__**nd**__** Summary:**__ Kennedy's additional training for hunting monsters also deals with religious and historical references to how mankind got so badly messed-up in the first place. Set in Season 4 era of Buffy the Vampire Slayer._

**Characters:**_ Kennedy (BtVS), "Count Iblis"/The First Evil, Fr. Gabriel, Rupert Giles, and various other canonical characters, included citation of Adam & Eve in the tale._

**Genre(s):**_ Spiritual-Supernatural action-adventure for the most part, but various others will come into play, especially including hurt/comfort due to trauma in someone's past. Family and Friendship also._

**Rating:**_ Despite the extremely perverse personality of the villain of this piece- and "extremely perverse personality" thereof doesn't do anywhere near accurate- believe me- this isn't anymore violent nor perverse in the story than a regular, oh, teenage appropriate story, so a gentle PG rating is proper._

**Chapter #1.): "Knowing the Tactics of the Adversary is far More Important than being strong enough to resist him in his wiles."**

**Author's Notes Beginning Chapter #1.):**_ Not that much at this time, just read and find out._

Kennedy Giles shifted her purse on her left shoulder as she headed up the steps of UC Sunnydale to try to get to her summer semester history class, due to that bag having fallen down to her elbow of her left arm. No sooner did she modify that item's position than her backpack began to fall down; this was too much for her, and she almost swore under her breath before she caught herself, for a variety of reasons, one of the biggest thereof was that she wanted to "go steady" with a certain teen girl by the name of Dawn Summers, the younger sister of her good friend and not only former High School classmate but also coworker in a lot of different ways, Buffy Summers… and she doubted that her crush's mom would want her hanging out with her youngest if she had a potty-mouth.

The raven-haired Brit's life had been far from easy indeed at that: she'd had endless losses in her young life, the death of her parents in a car-accident, and she got the sense that that was pretty common as a tactic of the baddies. Her sister, well-half-sister actually, Pansy, had let slip to her once that a school celebrity in her school was also almost killed, and the word on the street there was it was due to a car-accident that slew his parents; ironically, she had informed her, his sole remaining reminder of that was a type of mystical scar on the forehead that ached when monsters were near… she'd gotten away better than he had, though, of so she suspected. But that gal was well aware of the many preternatural dangers in the world, her parents had indeed been murdered in a car-accident, unlike his as it turned out, but the driver was under the influence of a mystical drug, as it were, and had nearly killed her too! She'd spent a while in the hospital, only waking up some time later, and had had no fear of death since then for some reason, whatsoever. This, as it turned out, was commonplace among those who as children suffer near-death-experiences, she'd been but five at the time, and her teacher had taken her in as his newly adopted daughter and raised her since then. Now she was eighteen going on nineteen as she strode into the hallways to head to her history class, taught by a local Padre by the name of Fr. Gabriel. How he'd gotten his job in a public school she didn't quite know, especially in a very secular state like California at that, and a very liberal state at that, but he did, and he'd proven to be a solid teacher of these matters.

Suddenly she stepped on a piece of wood, heard it crack, and then, altogether too late she heard someone exclaim "Careful! My Pencil!" came the anguished cry of despair; and inwardly she cringed at her total carelessness. Her reply was swift "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry." She looked down, but it was too late, her stylish boot had obliterated the pencil group into wood chips and chunks, and she felt sick to her stomach at that, to the point of nearly doubling over in nausea about breaking another student's gear for school!

In another dimension, that of the evil one itself, the gateway to which had had a building come down ontop of it in the last graduation that the old Sunnydale High had had ever before blowing up- _quite the fireworks I might add_\- the First mused to himself inwardly, in the appearance of his alias: "Count Iblis" was what he'd been known as at that time, as his fingers tapped idly at the handles of his elaborate chair of office as the Comrade Secretary General of Perdition recollected the slaughter created by his agent and recruit: Mayor Richard Wilkins, and all the antics he'd managed to cause. Not the least of which was training a young Faith Lehane in the "Dark Arts" before the fireplace in the Town Hall some quiet evenings, as it's known in Hogwarts; ***that***, now *that* was amusing to this fallen seraphim, the corruption of a child always delighted that monster "I'll have to pay my respects to Old Dick Wilkins for that." The First mused to himself quietly as he recalled all the harm it'd done to poor Faith's immortal soul by him teaching her occult activities.

Of course, the "respects" he was referring to would amount to additional torments for those're the "rewards" for perverting children, especially into engaging in such sins as he'd taught her to do- things that bring everlasting humiliation and despair at best, and grief eternal at worst… "Richard wanted to become a demon- he sure did the job alright by perverting a child he'd taken on the mantle of "daddy" to… lets see what I can do to reward him for his services to Hell." Count Iblis mused as he headed to a torture cell labeled "Mayor Dick Wilkins", a practical joke that the evil one had played on his agent upon welcoming him into his realm, opening the door, he saw exactly what pleased him, on the screen above the rack that Rich Wilkins lay upon was what was being transmitted into his mind: it was only impure pictures, aimed at furthering his corruption- the "entertainment" of Perdition, where he now lived, and he was obviously in agony due to the physical torments being inflicted upon him- there was a sicker intent of Count Iblis in using those "entertainments" on his victims: the furtherment of their enslavement, as such images work as a vile and extremely addictive drug. That was precisely why that sort of activity was "entertaining" to the fallen spirits: it wasn't for the bad images, but rather the *effects* thereof in corrupting mankind into their addicted slaves! Walking up to the slab on which he lay, and looking inside the now mutilated man as he observed the inner organs being used as "playthings" by his torturers, Count Iblis smiled at Rich, but there was absolutely nothing remotely kind in his smile, rather something predatory and sadistic to the core- it was the malevolent grin of a hunter when his victim is helpless to resist his cruel torments; which was exactly what was going on at this moment! Count Iblis cocked his head slightly sideways and said, in a pseudo-friendly tone "Well, Rich, you like this, eh?" as he took in hand one of Mayor Wilkins inner organs and sadistically twisted- he knew it'd cause no permanent damage- pity that- was his attitude on that detail. He wanted to do harm to this wizard who'd aided him, he just was completely unable to do so.

In Count Iblis' cruel mind his recollections went back to convincing Adam through Eve, and the both of them, to take his drugs to, as he falsely put it: "increase their performance", when in reality it only deprived them of getting anywhere near that level of performance, and in fact lowered their performance ceiling, and messed up their children big time.

Incidentally, in an after-class discussion between Kennedy Giles's classes, she was seated in Fr. Gabriel's office engaged in a discussion over some of those same themes, featuring the fall of man, and how it happened that these things came up; one thing she enjoyed about dealing with that particular professor was that he did disagree with her on some issues, such as so-called "same-sex marriage"; they'd had many an argument on that detail- and if she was going to be intellectually honest, it was a help to see if her own suppositions were indeed correct, or if deeply disordered… the evidence would indeed tell, and he'd told her as much: that the evidence will indeed tell the truth. In that way she knew he respected her as a person, even with deep disagreements between the two of them. Some things about their faith she just didn't get at all, for instance why she couldn't be with the one she loved. The two were engaged in a study discussion on the issue of how original sin came into the world and how it works and what it doesn't do at all, verses what it really does, as a basis of how come humans tend to be so bad to oneanother- it was philosophy, but it was also history, and psychology, almost all of them rolled into one.

"You didn't have to tell me in a letter that you had to go to eat because your dad was calling" he told her, about Rupert calling her for dinner "you'd not even need to do so in a text message, and frankly it's none of my darn business what's going on inside your home, unless it's something against the Decalogue's regulations for home safety, what is important is really only that in practical application thereof, not any private matters, unless involved in safety. Telephone? Sure, you do that, but in terms of email, letters, or text messages; no, not necessary at all… you could even send and then write a new one; I don't believe in blocking anyone's messages to me."

Now Miss Giles looked at him a bit askew as she asked "Not even the evil one's messages?" she questioned, puzzled.

"Oh, his I most certainly would; but there're ways around that, for instance: you find out what he wants you to do, then you do the opposite… that kind of thing, especially if, like he did in the Garden of Eden as the serpent, he's trying to get you to take his drugs- that's kind of what he did by the way." Fr. Gabriel said with a sly look "Tactics, kiddo, since he's extremely intelligent, and since intelligence is a true performance booster, use it, don't let him hold any edges over you that you can avoid- but never ever ever use his favors, those always always come with a devastating cost that we can't begin to imagine!" he explained some of the hazards as a warning note to her before making sure to send her on to her next class or break. She almost lost her tongue again as she remembered she'd left her backpack in the classroom, though, and her expression of horror woke him to the fact of that, and he asked her "What've your backpack, Miss Giles?" and he got up, took her back to the classroom, and unlocking the door he let her in to get her gear, which was at her seat.

Checking swiftly to make sure her gear was all in her backpack that should be there, including her cellphone, she removed the device and telephoned her dad to let him know that class was done, to which he directed her to head over to get lunch and then meet him in the library of the campus, where he had obtained a job, but she let slip to Fr. Gabriel that Rupert was her dad by the words he happened to hear in passing- and that could've been dangerous, except that, like her and many of their other colleagues, he was a gifted fencer/sword-fighter, as were many in his organization in fact, and had a cabinet where he kept his gear hidden away in the library of UC Sunnydale in secret, as well as at their home.

Her thoughts briefly strayed to her stepmom, Olivia, as she headed to get something to eat, and then hopefully to put on her bathing suit, head to the swimming pool if she could, and get a workout for a bit of fun, and she wondered about Kendra Young, another girl she'd met, although briefly, and in recollecting Jessie MacNally, a previous friend of hers, a small and unbidden tear rolled down her cheek, as his death, and at the moment of death, demonic possession, was still very traumatic to her; they'd had to kill him to stop him, and that still burned, even years later on since.

**End Chapter #1: Author's Notes:**_ When dealing with a totally nonphysical evil mind, which's what temptation really is, you really cannot do physical damage to something that doesn't exist on the physical plane, but does exist anyways. Also, this got far darker than I'd originally thought, so I'd rate it as a high-PG, due to the hinted-at horrible "entertainments" of Perdition; but there's a rightful purpose behind that: to reveal what and why to avoid. There is nothing I write that doesn't have a morally acceptable purpose, rest assured._


End file.
